A dolly is a wheeled platform for moving heavier objects, such as furniture, equipment, aircraft, vehicles, etc. However, many commercially available dollies are either inadequately designed for lifting and moving heavy objects, such as 3000 pounds or more, are overly complex, or are prohibitively expensive for the average consumer or small business.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,597,524 describes a self-loading wheel dolly having a design that is unduly complex. Zendex Tool Corp. sells a similar 4-wheel dolly under the brand name GoJack®, but the GoJack dolly is not useful for vehicles larger than 6300 lbs (1754 lb/wheel). U.S. Pat. No. 7,673,887 describes a simpler wheel dolly, but it is also not heavy duty and is only useful for towing applications.
In addition, the need to lift and move objects in close quarters presents a challenge. For example, the parking valet services available at many hotels are sometimes faced with a car or a truck parked too close to a curb, to other cars, to walls or fences, or other obstacles, where the owner has walked away with the keys, leaving the valet with a dilemma if there is a need to move the vehicle. The valet can call for a roll-back truck to move the vehicle, but such vehicles are rarely on-site and therefore the task often takes some time to accomplish, particularly on busy evenings or weekends.
Thus, there remains a need for an improved dolly that can operate to safely lift particularly heavy objects even a few inches, and even in close quarters. The present disclosure utilizes and expands on the concepts previously disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 9,688,176 entitled Self-Loading Dolly, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.